A Baker's Dozen: Daily Life in a Large Family: Spreading Their Wings

You know you have a large family when...

...your children feel sorry for families with only six or seven children.
...people ask if you're competing with the Duggars.
...even your friends aren't sure how many children you have.
...your family no longer fits in a 15 passenger van.
..complete strangers feel welcome to comment on your fertility and contraceptive methods.
...two of your daughters go for a walk...and get asked by a neighbor if they're foster kids.
...you have to carry three health insurance cards in your wallet- because that's how many it takes to fit everyone's name.
...you take the wrong child to the dentist...simply because your handwriting on the calendar was messy and both started with a "j".
...grocery shopping for 30 children and 12 adults for a two day camp constitutes a "small" shopping trip for you.
You find yourself relating some small incident to your husband and starting with the words, "Well, I only boiled twenty-six eggs for breakfast..."
...you buy a 40 pound box of bananas intending to make banana bread and freeze a bunch for smoothies...but your children eat them all first.
...you find an afternoon root canal relaxing.
...it takes you twenty-three minutes on the phone to schedule your children's dental appointments.
...you've given up on using your toaster entirely and make all of your toast under the broiler in you oven.
...you are seriously tempted by the stacking cribs you see at Goodwill for $19.99.
...you find yourself thinking, "Wow, the house is so quiet and peaceful with only nine children".
...you have enough children to constitute not one, but TWO large families.
...you have a laundry basket devoted entirely to lonely socks seeking their mate.
...when you got to buy your children those cool "spin toothbrushes" because you think they get their teeth so much cleaner...but the store doesn't carry enough styles/colors for your children to each have a different toothbrush.
...when you can't take all of your children to the doctor's office at the same time because the waiting room has only 10 seats.
...when you still have seven children that are required by law to sit in a carseat or booster seat.
...you call the doctor to get your children tetnus shots, and they tell you they don't have enough in the office and need to order more from the health department.
...you take up more than one entire pew in church.
...you take only half of your children to the library, and STILL get asked if they're all yours.
...you go to fill your children's flouride prescription at the phamacy and you clean them out of every pill they have...and it's still not enough.
...you spend sixty dollars on socks...and not everyone gets new socks.
...you go shopping at Costco and the cashier asks if you're having a soccer barbecue.

September 08, 2011

Mordecai's First Day of School

Mordecai, age 9. Isn't he simply adorable?

For the reader who asked, yesterday was Mordecai's first day of school ever. The decision to put him in school came after much prayer, thought and discussion with his doctor. Mordecai was diagnosed with Static Encephelopathy Alcohol Exposed at age 2 1/2. In plain, brutal English, that means brain damage from prenatal alcohol exposure. Along with learning difficulties he deals with behavioral issues and rage. It was the behavior issues that sealed my decision to send him to school, not his academic skills. I won't go into all the drama here and now, but that's why he is in school. I don't think he will act out in school to the extent he does at home. He doesn't like to "grump" in front of his friends or when we are out in public so I am hoping that carries over into school.

Mordecai boarded the school bus without a backward glance. He is in the Intensive Learning class. Apparently we can't use the term "special ed" because that might hurt the kids self-esteem or something? I don't know. There are seven students, one teacher and two aids in his class.

His school is small and only a five minute's drive from our house, despite our rural location. And since we live in a rural location, the school bus picks him up right at the top of our driveway. My little guy was gone from 9:55 to 4:10 yesterday. What a long day for a kid who gets exhausted from two hours of Cub Scouts!

When he came home he headed straight for the couch and opened his lunch box. All he had eaten was his sandwich. He proceeded to eat the rest of his lunch and listen to books read by his siblings. I asked Mordecai to tell me two things that he did in school and he said he couldn't remember...I asked him to tell me one thing he did and after much thought he said, "played at recess".

So that's about all I know about his day. I let him play the Gameboy (a rare treat in our house) becasue I could see how very tired he was and how much he just needed some down time. I had to meet a client at 6:00, then Hilary for Grump Therapy, so I wasn't here to see him the rest of the evening. I do wonder how enthusiastic he'll be to head off today....

06:30 AM in Adoption, Homeschoooling, Special Needs, Spreading Their Wings | Permalink | Comments (8) | TrackBack (0)

August 23, 2011

After Teen Missions International

My sweet Adalia has been home from her big adventure with Teen Missions International for just over a week now. She had the time of her life, as I knew she would. She is calling it the "best summer of her life"...just as I would call my two summers with TMI.

At the same time she is missing her teamates terribly. After spending two months in often difficult circumstances they are very bonded. Thankfully with today's technology it is so much easier to keep in touch. They email, facebook and even have a Honduras Horseback facebook page when they can keep up and chat. Back in the day when Chuck and I went on teams ('86, '93, '94) you had to use snail mail...

Hooray for technology! And at the same time, technology can sometimes be a mixed blessing.

Imagine being 15, on your very first (but hopefully not last) TMI team. You're at Boot Camp in a technology class (um, didn't have those back in the day) and the speaker starts talking about how to use the internet to share the gospel. He talks about websites, how you can view where your hits come from and then goes on to say:

"One day we started getting a ton of hits from this one site, so we went to check it out. Well, this lady, who's a Former Team Member, has 14 children and a blog, A Baker's Dozen, and put a link over to us. She has quite a following...it's almost like a cult or something..."

Oh my. Adalia was apparently preceded to Boot Camp by you, dear friends! Thankfully she thought it was wonderful and amusing...not humiliating :)

So what the heck, why don't you click over to Teen Missions International agian, just to keep them busy?

Adalia is home and adjusting well, but she is ready to start school. After putting in 8 hour work days all summer, she feels a bit lost. Books and music seem different somehow. She is now surrounded by younger siblings instead of her friends. She is back in the business of babysitting, if you live locally.

I am still having a grand time hearing more and more stories each day...and if you'd like to hear more about her trip, she has blogged Part Three of her trip. I know, she calls it Honduras Part II, but that's because she already blogged about Boot Camp.